


Walking the Old Paths (And Charting the New)

by Pyrosnowman



Series: Neo Grimoire [1]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: 1st person pov, Arcstrider, Dawnblade, Stormcaller, Subclasses, Sunbreaker, gunslinger, nightstalker, sentinel, striker - Freeform, voidwalker - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-13
Updated: 2018-01-20
Packaged: 2019-03-04 08:11:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13360218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pyrosnowman/pseuds/Pyrosnowman
Summary: What it means to take on the subclasses.*EDIT* I'm going through all of the subclasses now





	1. Chapter 1

_“The Light, you shape it, you tool it, that’s what a Hunter does y’know? Everything is about efficiency and necessity when you’re out in the wilds, and nobody knows that better than a Hunter.”_

There was a time before the Dancers. Before Arc was _remade_ to become a blade so sharp it hurt to touch, it was crutch to lean on. They say the Arc Light is Life, you know? Every living thing has a spark or two of Arc in it, even the Planets. And yes, the Planet _lives_ you idiot, don’t question it. You’re still wet around the ears, stop asking questions and just _listen_ , ok? Look, back in the old days, when we were all Risen and the Iron Lords were the only thing keeping people from slitting each other’s throats, we weren’t assassins. Traveler knows we had enough killers roaming wide, and subtlety wasn’t an art anyone but the Nightstalkers had any idea of. Naw see, back in the day we used to pull up these great big staffs, cross the field in a second and show the Fallen and their gimpy little spears what close quarters _really_ meant. We would get refugees to towns with just the Arc light alone, just our staffs and that tingly pretty blue Light keeping the darkness at bay. And when the City was starting to come together? Take a hot guess who it was who brought in all them people. Cus it sure as shit wasn’t the Titans, they couldn’t move fast enough to get to the poor sops who were so far out into the Dead Zones they hadn’t seen anything but hostiles in generations. Warlocks were too busy trying to build every Golden Age defensive precaution back into action so we weren’t all killed before the Walls were built. So it came down to the Hunters. The Nightstalkers, especially Takanome and her Rangers, they would scout miles ahead and mark the safe paths with these flowers and tether anything that looked at ‘em funny. Gunslingers would walk in, talk the talk, get as many willing people on board as possible. When it was time to dust off and leave, the Arcstriders would pick up their staffs and lead the way. I remember one guy, he took one swing with his Arcstaff and sent 10 Fallen flying. Kid he saved held onto his cloak the entire way home. Imagine that huh? A kid clinging to an _Arc Hunter_. Yeah, those were some days, Greenhorn. After that though, wasn’t much need for the wandering protectors. There weren’t any crazy mass exoduses like that for centuries until… well, you know. Bladedancers came about right around then. Gunslingers and Nightstalkers have always walked the same path, probably always will. But Arcstriders were protectors of the travelers too weak and too tired to protect themselves. No more travelers, no more Arcstriders. The Dancers came in, and Arc Hunters get the big ol’ scary assassin title slapped on ‘em. Slip into the shadows, reappear halfway across the room with a knife full of arc and boom everyone’s dead and Zavala is calling it a wrap. _Those_ were the Dancers. They knew all the dirty tricks that came with wet work. They could Blink better than half the Warlocks in the Tower, hide as well as any Nightstalker, and their knives made Strikers think twice in the Crucible. Different style for a different time, you know? But now the Red Legion is here making a fuss and you know…. I haven’t seen a Dancer since Ghaul reared his ugly mug. All them Arcstriders came right back, like they never left. Changing times, kid. Just remember, whatever you pull out of the light when you finally _do_ figure it out, you’re a Hunter. Whether you fill a crowd with Solar bullets or tie em down with Void, or hell, if you’re full of Arc and pull our staff, just remember: it isn’t the stupid glowing ball in the sky you’re fighting for. You’re protecting all those people behind the Wall, and _that_ is why we’re here. Don’t let the wilds make you forget that, Greenhorn.

 

_“Complacency is every strategist’s worst nightmare. You get lazy, you get stupid, and soon your impeccable strategy is crumbling to bits and the rug has been pulled out right underneath you.”_

You understand why we have the Shield now, right? A lot of it has to do with the Firebreak Order. They had a single rule, the Firebreak Calculus. It asked, how much good would I do if I find the right place to fight and die? I’m sure you can see where this is going. It optimizes the efficiency of a Guardian, of a Titan, up until their dying breath. They were fearsome for it, moreso than any of the rest of us could ever hope to be. Even the Pilgrim Guard, with all their fire and fury for those outside the walls could not hold a candle to the Firebreak Order. It was why we failed so spectacularly when the Red Legion swept through our City, and it is why we carry a Shield now and forever. We thought ourselves safe in the City, on top of our walls with all our guns and a host of battle-tested Guardians who had held off so many invasions for centuries. If six of us could slay the Taken King in his own throne room, what could an army bring? Hubris. There is no other name for it. We fell to our own arrogance. Zavala himself sought to stand his ground and he faltered. Ask yourself this: why? Very few times have the Defenders ever let their dome of Light, the ever-present Ward of Dawn, fall. So how could it now? The very symbol and definition of a Guardian’s protection simply fell to pieces on that bloody day, and now we carry shields. The Defender Titans failed, _we_ failed because we stood our ground instead of taking a step forward. We thought ourselves brave for standing upright against the Darkness, but we never once dared for a foothold beyond where we stood. Every single Titan Order failed and died that day because none of them did what the Firebreak Order truly dared to do: step forward and fight for what was ours. We had grown comfortable in our small corner of Earth. The Ward of Dawn, the Defender, never thought to step forward. The Sentinel does. We raise our shields and we step forward and we _fight_ Guardian, we will fight till our dying ragged breath and then we will come back and fight some more. Sol is our home, and never again shall we make the mistake of simply watching our invaders step all over it. The only path to victory is to continue onward and refuse complacency at every turn. Learn this lesson well, Guardian. We all took the hard fall for failing to do so, and I pray you never see it repeat.

 

_“We told ourselves the Light wasn’t a tool, it wasn’t a weapon, it was a force unlike any other. Pure, unadulterated energy in its rawest and most primal form. We sought to be a conduit.”_

There is no Guardian prouder than we Warlocks, and not without reason. Within our number hold some of the strongest Guardians to ever brave the Second Death, and of all the orders, only Warlocks thought to use Light _as_ light and not as a tool. Hunters make bows and pistols and blades, they craft Light. Fitting, for a Hunter scavenges what he can get from the Wilds and never wastes what he finds. Titans create a point, a focus for their Light. They form a fist, a Shield, a Hammer, all with their indomitable will. A Titan makes her light a weapon and stands stronger for it, for she is never unarmed and never unprepared. Hunters are the blades that carve Light into a shape of their choosing, and Titans are the spear-tip that makes Light a weapon to defend any and all. Fearsome and cunning warriors both make, but they fundamentally fail to know the Light like we Warlocks do. We do not force or shape the Light, we become one with the Light. We are the conduits through which the Light flows, and from our fingertips we wield power like no other. Stormcallers were forces of nature, the epicenter of a storm without end. Voidwalkers saw beyond the veil, they walked with death and shadows and called both _friend_. And once, Sunsingers, did what no other could: they defied the Second Death. Even without a Ghost, a true Sunsinger could use the Solar light to form themselves from nothing and burn like the phoenix of old. We thought ourselves mages and scholars without equal, we fancied ourselves as _dragons_ , especially after we faced true dragons that whispered deals and whose bones gave us strength. Knowledge and understanding was our gain, our true purpose, and Osiris and Toland both would agree wholeheartedly. We drank of strength and Light till we forgot who we were, and when Ghaul came we crashed back to earth and broke ourselves on the ground we thought ourselves too mighty to touch. And would you like to know how we recovered, young Guardian? We _changed_. Our songs of the sun turned to screams of vengeance, and we lit our blood on fire just to rise again. No Sunsinger will ever rise again, not in this life or the next. The Dawnblade has replaced that particular fantasy, and with good reason. A conduit cannot tear burning vengeance into he who stripped us of our home and friends. We thank him, for reminding us of our humanity. Our gift back to Ghaul was a blade of sun-fire buried deep in his chest, and a vow to never lose ourselves in the stars again. Our folly was pride, our lesson was loss, and our strength is bound in a blade of Light we would have once scorned. We learned the lesson that Titans and Hunters had already so long ago figured out: that Light is ours to use and wield to protect that which we love. The _how_ matters very little when all the chips are down, only that you succeed. Of course, it helps that Hunters are jealous we can fly and don’t have to pull _our_ sword from the hands of a dead Captain, but you didn’t hear that from me.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This initially came from the in-game lore that Arcstriders have always existed, and then it all went from there. If anyone would like to see more about subclasses, message me on my tumblr arrogance-is-my-middlename.tumblr.com! Odds are I'll return to this idea at some point.
> 
> *EDIT* yeah lol I returned to it. Debating ending it at just the Destiny 2 subclasses, but I could add a fourth chapter on the Lost Subclasses (RIP n rest Bladedancer, sweet prince)


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We almost lost these powers. Take care not to do it again.

_"Whatever you do, don't fear the Void. When you look deep into it and it looks back, just remember that at the end of the day it's still your ally. This one just has teeth."_

Normally it falls to Tevis to give this little speech but... well he's gone now and somebody's gotta do it. Hunters aren't real _big_ on lessons, understand? You hear it once, and if you don't remember that's on you. We learn best by doing, and that's what the Wilds are for. Now look, I can see the fear and worry in your eyes- somebody got all wide-eyed and worried when you pulled the Bow, didn't they? Yeah, I bet they did. Idiots. Look, the Void ain't nothin' to fear. Warlocks'll tell you that the Void is the bone-aching deep emptiness that stares at you from the depths of the cosmos, that it swallows you and spits out something else that has your face but is different; and sure, if you wanna walk that route it'll eat your Light up and turn you into a monster that hunts monsters, but last I checked only idiots in floppy robes walk that path. You and I? We ain't them. Warlocks like to tell you that they _understand_ the Light, that they become _one_ with it or some nonsense. It's all a load of bullshit, and you can quote me on that. Are you writing this down? Don't write that down. Seriously. Put down the pen.

Look, the report says you hadn't pulled a super yet, couldn't manifest 'nades or anything. Your Light specialty was an unknown, then you and your fireteam got cornered by the Vex and you just up and pulled the Bow and turned everything to a bunch of Void-touched scrap metal. You wanna know _why_ you were able to pull it out of the blue like that? It's because the Void has a life of its own. It's got a different voice for everyone, Tevis told me that. He used to say that the Void will be your closest ally once you know how to listen to it whisper at you. Arc could give and take life at whim, Solar could burn down the entire universe if you really wanted to, but Void was an unknown entity that lived in the liminal space between. It's your best friend, and at times, your _only_ friend. The reason you aim _before_ you pull the Bow and not _after_ is because the Bow is just an end to the mean. The arrow you shoot is raw Void, not quite the tacky ball of Void-fire that Nova bombs turn into, but the arrow tears open a bit of the Universe, sucks everything in and spreads all the pain you have to give to everything it touches. Nasty bit of business when I put it like that, huh?

But that's what it means to be a friend of the Void. It won't let anything touch you, it'll fill your allies full of Light, and it'll be there to whisper ancient secrets to you when you're ready to hear them. It'll only change you if you let it, if you want it to. People are scared of it cus it's dark and doesn't make a lot of sense to anyone who isn't in the know, but Hunter, you're a Nightstalker. There's nothing in the shadows that you'll ever have to fear again. Oh, and before you go: send any Vex you see screaming back to Hell. Tevis will be waitin' for em, ready to repay a little debt he owes em.

" _Kind of ironic, isn't it? To forge a hammer. Normally it's the hammer that does the forging, and I suppose this Hammer does that too. It forges our future."_

It burns, doesn't it? That fierce, angry flame. It's just beneath your skin now, ready to call at a moment's notice. Reach into the flames, pull out the Hammer, show the Darkness your might. I'll be straight with you Titan: It's going to be very difficult to put that Hammer _back_. And why would you? That Solar Light burns _so bright_ , why not bring it roaring down your enemies' throats and teach them what it is to fear the Guardians? Listen very closely, Titan. We've lost countless of our number to that hubris. We think ourselves invincible, and then they crush our ghosts when our flames burn too dim and all is lost in the blink of an eye. Every fire can be quenched, every sun eventually dies in bright terrible star-fire. Keep that humility in mind, else you'll burn yourself to ashes and we'll be left to scatter you along the Wall like so many- too many- others.

There is another hidden truth, a reason for why we are so very few. Even before the Red War and an entire order was wiped from the surface of Mercury, it takes a certain kind of grit to reach into the belly of the sun and pull our Hammer from its depths. The Hammer of Sol is more than just a weapon, it's a symbol of our conviction. Each subclass forms their subclass out of something, the Sentinels with their unbreakable defense of humanity, the Strikers with their fury, and Sunbreakers? We have resolve. We face the fiercest fires, the greatest pains imaginable. We _forge ourselves_ in that deep sun-fire, and we become so much stronger for it. Few Guardians have that kind of willpower, even fewer are Titans. The others, they vow not to break in the face of their enemies, but we must vow not to break at all. The Darkness and it's destruction is our reward, our trials to pull the Hammer require so much more. For it is one thing to be unbreakable for the innocent, to stand fast for humanity and its children; it is quite another to crush your own weakness and become your final potential even when there's nobody to protect at all. Guardians will live and die for humanity, Sunbreakers are the ones who simply never trip in the process.

It's a message all new Sunbreakers must hear. Our imperative driving force, and a deep warning. For in crushing weakness, you lose your sense of mortality. Without fear, it is quite difficult to differentiate bravery and stupidity. Always be aware.

_"We Warlocks do a lot of floating around. This time, we conduct lightning from our fingertips."_

The three main disciplines- four now, though I doubt anyone can still go Radiant like in the old days- all have vastly different mindsets but pretty similar approaches. Dawnblades are all fury and fire, red-hot rage with a sprinkling of pain. Sunsingers, back when they _existed_ , had a deep understanding of Light the likes of which nobody, and i repeat, _nobody_ , could come to match. Voidwalkers look into the abyss and walk with Death to test themselves, and Stormcallers... well, we stand in the middle of arcstorms. Don't tell a Hunter we do that, you won't hear the end of it and they'll start calling you "Sparky" or something equally inane and foolish. Take my advice on this one: _don't tell the Hunters_. 

Alright, I'll grant you that it sounds incredibly stupid to stand in the middle of one of the most violent and powerful arc phenomena in the solar system, but I promise there's a reason. Do you know why Voidwalkers often end up being thanatanaughts, walkers of death? Why Dawnblades wreathe themselves in flames? It's not a trick question I promise! It's because we Warlocks seek to understand and become one with our Light. Best way to do that? Swim in it. Let it in, plunge headfirst into the torrent of power and hope you don't singe your eyebrows.

It's one thing to talk to the Light and tool it to your needs, and quite another to become so smooth a conduit of Light that you essentially become Light. Warlocks do the latter. So go to Mars, find a storm, and go get struck by Arc Lightning a few times. Trust me, you'll like it.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What it means to take on the Lost Subclasses.

_"What's with all the ash? You pulled Gold didn't you? Huh. Guess you really do take after Cayde."_

There's not much to say on this one, newbie. It's pretty self explanatory, innit? It's a big fuck-off gun made of sunfire, when you pull the trigger, things turn into ash. It's all over your cloak, so you clearly figured that part out. If you're looking for somebody to tell you all about the stories of Shin Malphur and good ol' Jaren then you can go bother someone else at the bar. Better yet, go talk to Hawthorne. Word is she met the guy out in the wilds. What I  _will_ tell you is not to overthink it. Look, each subclass has its own little quirks and tricks but we Gunslingers just stick to the most basic tenant possible: keep your skills sharp. At the end of the day, we get into gun fights and have to come out on top every time. So how do you do that? Immerse yourself in the Praxic Fire? Fill yourself so full of Arc that your teeth buzz? Maybe kill yourself a couple times so that you can hear the whispers of the Void? Fuck that. Fuck. All. Of. That. Listen Hunter, the Light is not infinite. It's not our ultimate strength that will conquer all. Everyone who becomes so bright that it hurts to look at them? They die. You wanna know about the legends who are still alive and kicking? Ana Bray. Shin Malphur. And guess what? Even though both of them are practically leaking Light, it's their skills that kept them alive. They didn't go down in a blaze of glory and Light, they just put bullets through skulls and called it good. That's the way of the Gunslinger. Use the Light to give yourself a little extra gunpowder, but other than that, your best bet is a steady aim and a quick draw. Don't see much reason to ask for much more. 

_"Everyone says we just hit things. That's not true. We crush things too."_

Wei Ning had it right when she said that nothing could beat the sure, unbreakable might of a Titan's fist. Guns run out of bullets, blades chip and dull, Light fades away. Fists? Fists just grow callouses and get harder. The Strikers really take this whole concept to the next level. We do not need a hammer of flame, or a shield made of Void Light. You need only your fist. A fist is the only weapon and only defense you will ever, truly require. The Traveler was kind enough to let us fill our palms with lightning and strike our foes with thunder. And you know something? The fist is the perfect gateway for it. Strike, pound, crush, eliminate, repeat as necessary. Simple logic, simple code, and best of all, it simply works. If your fist breaks upon your enemy, then you need only strengthen your resolve and, in turn, strengthen your fist. Broken bones heal stronger, and the Light heals us  _very_ quickly. And if you're ever looking for motivations? Easy. Whoever tries to kill your friends, your new family, your vanguard, the children down there, the families desperate to live till old age, if anyone tries to kill them? They deserve to get punched. Repeatedly. And really, at the end of the day it's quite fun, isn't it? So go on. Punch something. Make it dead. Repeat as necessary. 

_"Life and Death are intrinsically linked. You are the Line, you are the Divider. If someone crosses you, they cross the Line. Make sure they don't cross it again."_

A Hunter once said that "some things just need killing". She had never said a single thing before that moment that struck me as any sort of wisdom, but I believe she struck gold just this once. Where she was very wrong was in the methodology. I watched her hack a Hive Knight to pieces with nothing but her knife and a custom Ghost shell. Effective, but messy. And frankly? With the Hive, I would rather not leave anything behind that isn't a scorch mark. So, yes, I used the Nova Bomb to eviscerate the rest of our foes- and the Hive Knight's remains for good measure. I think I singed the Hunter's cloak too. The point is, when it all comes down to it, the Void is the link. You can burn a Hive Wizard, electrify it, stab it, crush it even. But the Wizard? She will always come back until you push her so far deep into the Void that she is consumed by a darkness not her own, and then you can feed on the ashes. Was that too dark? Apologies. That does not change my stance on this. Remember that you, as a Voidwalker, tread the boundary that is invisible to anyone who doesn't know. Take up that power, consume it, grow so very strong, and then turn your teeth on your foes. It's an incredibly effective strategy, I promise. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I won't lie I got stuck on this for a very long time. I moved across the country, got into some trouble. all that fun stuff. On the other hand you might notice that I no longer am limiting this to 3 chapters. Forsaken just... made my job harder lol. Time for more subclass talk I suppose. honestly that's fine. Hunters with knives make my day anyways. I'll see you guys in september, what few of you that actually read my drivel. Cheers!


End file.
